Of varieties I speak with caution, as experience varies considerably, in different localities, with the condition of soil and the elevation, two or three hundred feet of altitude so entirely changing the complexion of most varieties as to place them often beyond the recognition of their friends; and because the next ten years is likely to change the judgment of growers as to many kinds.

Our earliest valuable pear is the DOYENNÉ D'ÉTÉ, which ripens with us the last of June. Its succeeds well as dwarf or standard. It is profitable, mainly, because it has no competition. The MADELEINE, at the same season, cracks badly with many, and is but little planted. BLOODGOOD is not much grown, but is thought well of from its season, early bearing, and fair quality; though its appearance is against it. BEURRE GIFFORD is a pear which has given great satisfaction to all who have fruited it, notwithstanding its faults as a tree. Its good size and quality, and great beauty of form and color, make it a favorite; and it will bring the highest prices in all markets. No pear of its season will be so largely planted hereabouts. TYSON, DEARBORN, and JULIENNE are planted in a small way; but it is too early to speak for them. ROSTIEZER is quite widely but not largely planted, and, I think, has not yet become popular.

In Egypt, as everywhere, the BARTLETT leads all others in popularity and in the quantity planted. It succeeds magnificently with us, notwithstanding some inclination to blight. But, when blighting, it grows and bears and blights and pays right along, and more of the last, the growers say, than any other kind; and it will be planted more largely than any thing else, blight or no blight. In a few years, Southern Illinois will supply the Boston and New-York markets with Bartletts in their season, adding a month to your enjoyment of that variety.

BELLE LUCRATIVE Comes with the Bartlett, which is its greatest fault; for the latter outsells it, notwithstanding its superior quality. It is a fine grower as dwarf or standard, a profuse bearer, and but for its season, and a little tendency to rot at the core, would be one of our most valuable market kinds. That superb pear, the HOWELL, also follows the last two excellent kinds too closely, ripening the last half of August; and needs to be carried through the preserving-house into a later season to bring its worth in market. The Howell receives the unqualified admiration of its

VOL. III.

acquaintances. Without fault as a tree, with high, refreshing, vinous flavor, most graceful form, and inimitable waxen finish of skin which fastens attention, it promises with some growers to supplant the Bartlett.

FLEMISH BEAUTY does not give satisfaction here. The leaves fall prematurely from the tree, and the fruit rots prematurely at the core. LOUISE BONNE DE JERSEY is more largely set than any other dwarf, but has an uncertain standing. It often casts its leaves, and is frequently astringent, and seems to need rich soil, high culture, and thinning of fruit, to be uniformly excellent. It can be relied on for great crops; and, when rightly grown, will be profitable. WHITE DOYENNÉ is found in every orchard; but it cracks so frequently, as to forbid its extension. DUCHESSE D'ANGOULÊME has received great attention, and, when well grown and severely thinned out, is truly the “queen of pears," if great size cor.stitutes a queen. My own taste, however, prefers a smaller and more comely queen. BEURRE DIEL, grown on our high hills, cracks badly, and is astringent; but on lower and richer ground, as at Villa Ridge, it attains very great perfection, being in all respects a pear of the very first class. The ONONDAGUA is a noble and worthy pear, but sometimes rots at the core.

But the pear which promises at present to fill its season the most completely, and occupy much space in our orchards, is BEURRE D'ANJOU. When well grown, we neither want nor need a better thing. Following it closely, but filling a long season, and filling it with a delightful sweetness, which is long and fondly remembered, comes the LAWRENCE, without any peer, in the months of November and December.

For the winter months, I cannot speak with much certainty of any thing but Easter BeurRÉ. This most excellent and valuable pear, which cannot get sun enough in your stormy New-England clime to mature its rich juices, seems to be as much at home with us as on the sunny hillsides of its native France. Our long, warm autumns give it plenty of time to ripen; and it may be too early yet to speak decisively on this point: yet it seems, so far, to be free from that inconstancy which it has shown in the North and East. A very high Western authority regards this as our most valuable variety. If we can grow good Easters, can we grow too many? and need we be anxious about any other winter-pear? Parker Earle.

SOUTH PASS, Dec. 1, 1867.

HAMILTON.

NEW APPLE.

Introduced from the South into Southern Illinois by J. A. Crain of Pulaski County, Ill.; and exhibited before the State Horticultural Society at South Pass, Sept. 3, 1867. In many particulars, this fruit resembles the Buckingham, which is extensively cultivated in that region; but Mr. Crain reports the tree as different, and that the period of ripening is later. Fruit large, roundish, irregular, somewhat ribbed; surface smooth,

mixed dark-red and yellow, splashed with purple; dots large, scattered, yellow; basin deep, abrupt, folded; eye large, open; cavity deep, wavy, brown; stem medium to long, knobby; core medium, regular, open, clasping the eye; seeds numerous, plump, dark; flesh yellow, breaking, rather juicy; flavor sub-acid.

tober.

THE PHLOX.

We choose the phlox for a theme: first, because it is a plant wholly of American origin; secondly, for the great beauty of many of its varieties ; and, thirdly, for the hardiness and vigor which admirably adapt it to general culture. The tribe of the phloxes is divided into many families, of which the most prominent at the present time is that called by botanists Phlox paniculata. The original Phlox paniculata, the parent of the rest, grows wild in various parts of this continent. Its innumerable descendants, improved by cultivation and by hybridization with other species, form an admirable group of plants, in which the somewhat dingy purple or white of their progenitor is transformed into unnumbered shades of lilac, salmon, bright purple, pure white, white, and vivid crimson. This change has been brought about in two ways: first, by intermarrying Phlox paniculata with other species of the genus, which, though inferior as respects vigor of constitution and habit of growth, are in some cases more brilliant in color; and, secondly, by a long-continued raising of seedlings, and a careful selection of the best through successive generations. As respects intermarriage, or hybridization, it is by no means with every member of the same genus that Phlox paniculata will unite; but there are several for which it shows an affinity. Some have gone so far as to say that it is perfectly ready to ally itself with the beautiful annual, Phlox Drummondi, whose clear and vivid colors have of late years become familiar in our gardens. For our own part, we can only say, that, for several seasons, we diligently applied the pollen of the latter with a camel's-hair pencil to the flowers of Phlox paniculata, and never could see that it produced more effect than so much dust or ashes. Phloxes are not very easy to hybridize; for the reproductive organs are so hidden in the small tube of the flower, that to operate on them successfully requires the patience of Job. We advise the amateur, unless his zeal for science is irrepressible, to simply plant the different sorts side by side, and let the bees carry the pollen from one to the other.

We have raised many hundreds of phloxes from seed ; and, as the process and its results are very pleasant, we will give the fruits of our experience. We will take three very distinct varieties to begin with, all belonging to the

species paniculata, more or less tinctured, probably, with the blood of other families. The first shall be Madame Houllet, of a superb deep crimson; the second, Madame Flandres, of a delicate salmon; and the third, Madame Sueur, white, with a crimson spot in the middle. We plant each by itself, so far from other phloxes, that the bees are not likely to mingle the pollen. If we wish to be perfectly sure, we envelop each head of flowers with gauze to keep off the bees. Early in September, the seed is ripe on a bright, warm day, you may hear the capsules bursting with a sharp, snapping sound as the sun dries them. Now gather the seed, separate it from the pods, and sow it, each kind separate, in any light, rich soil, at a depth of about the third of an inch. As winter closes, cover it with a few boards. The plants will appear in May; whereas, if you had delayed your sowing till spring, not one seed in twenty would have germinated at all. When the plants are an inch high, take them up with the point of a knife, and plant them six inches apart, in a warm, sunny place. Most of them will blossom before the end of the season; and you will find it interesting to watch the features of the offspring. Those of Madame Houllet will, in the main, show traces of the parent. Various shades of crimson will be their prevailing hue; in some cases as fine as, possibly even finer than, the original. Many, however, will show a tendency to revert to the dull purple of the na

tive species from which their race has sprung; while some will very probably "sport" to a variety of red, pink, or rosy tints. Of the offspring of Madame Sueur, about one-third will be white, with a spot in the middle, like the parent, and the rest pink, purple, or rose; while, in the case of Madame Flandres, the results will be analogous, though the proportion of handsome seedlings will probably be less than with the former two. All this is on the supposition that you have kept the three sorts carefully apart at the time of flowering. If, on the contrary, you allow the pollen to mingle, nobody can predict what the result will be. One thing only is certain, that some of your seedlings will be as good as the best named sorts in cultivation.

It is our belief that the phlox has reached the highest point of development of which it is capable, and that very little further improvement is to be looked for, except, perhaps, in the production of a scarlet flower; a result which has lately been approximated, though not fully attained, except